Turtle ‘expresses gratitude’ after being freed from rope

A sea turtle shows what looks like gratitude after divers untangled it from a rope.

Cameron Dietrich and Colin Sutton were spearfishing for tuna off the coast of Mexico earlier this year when they found the struggling animal, according to The Weather Channel.

Dietrich used a dive knife to cut off the rope, which was tangled around the sea turtle’s front flipper. After starting to swim away, the animal returned to Dietrich. The diver briefly held the sea turtle up before letting it swim off.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Sea Turtle Conservancy executive director David Godfrey said the sea turtle’s circular swim was likely the result of limited paralysis in the flipper that was tangled in rope.

Sutton recorded the incident using a GoPro HD Hero3+ camera. Their video was uploaded to YouTube on July 3, and has received more than 1.7 million views.